Firefighters travel to Leeds to help with flood clean-up
Firefighters from across the UK have travelled to Leeds to help with the ongoing post-flood cleanup in Kirkstall.
After boxing day floods left much of Kirkstall Road underwater, hundreds of volunteers have been working to clean up and repair local businesses - some of which have suffered thousands of pounds worth of damage.
Around 30 firefighters from all over the country have now come to help, and will be staying here for the next few days.
"We've had firefighters from Greater Manchester, there's some London, some Surrey, we've had a couple come up from Dover," says retired firefighter Steve James, who's heading up the team.
He's from the UK branch of the Tunnels to Towers charity, which sees firefighters travel to disaster-hit areas to help communities recover.
"We'll go to anything that needs doing that isn't rescue-related. We'll come to a house that's flooded that needs clearing out. We'll wash the roads down if we need to, we've got a fire engine that we can do that with.
"The emergency crews go, I watch communities kind of put their hands on their head and go 'oh my god, everybody's leaving now.' That's where we come in.
"This is their community but people need to be able to take a bit of a breath and let us do a little bit. They also then know there's somebody else there caring about them."
At the Leeds Chinese Christian Church on Kirkstall Road, the group have been working to clean out part of the building after it filled with flood water.
Large pieces of metal, mud-covered remains of computers, a wooden cross and a child's football are among the items passed up from the basement and put into a skip.
They are joined by volunteers who have are part of the Kirkstall Flood Clean-up Action group set up on Facebook earlier in the week. The group now has more than 1,000 members, and is operating across the area from its base at Open Source Arts on Kirkstall Road.
The fire-fighters are sleeping in a local church over the next few days - but they've only got one fireman's uniform each and they're caked in mud.
"We wear old fire kit which is burgundy and yellow and silver," says Steve.
"We need help at the moment to be honest. The work that we've undertaken is filthy. We don't need to look 100% smart, but they've got mud contamination on and that's not nice to work in. So there's an appeal there from me."
The group are appealing to any local launderettes or sports clubs who could help get them into a clean and dry set of clothes while they're here.
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